With Gotham Knights being an open-world action RPG where you level up by beating the crap out of goons doing crimes, you’d imagine that everyone’s fair game. If you demolish this guy or pummel that girl, there’s the expectation that their bodies would explode in a cascade of brightly colored experience points. Games have conditioned us to think this way, after all. But that doesn’t always hold true in Gotham Knights. Specifically, its cops give you nothing for kicking their asses, no matter how fast you button-mash.

Gotham Knights is the new superhero game from WB Games Montréal, the team behind the now cult-fave Batman: Arkham Origins. Having just launched on October 21 for current-gen consoles and PC to middling reviews, the game puts you in control of the Bat Family—Barbara “Batgirl” Gordon, Dick “Nightwing” Grayson, Jason “Red Hood” Todd, and Tim “Robin” Drake—after daddy batty gets murked. With Batman’s cowl of protection ripped from Gotham’s skies, it’s up to the up-and-comers to establish themselves as the new guard that’ll watch over the dim and foggy city streets. They do this by stopping crimes and slapping criminals night after night, ad nauseam. And of course, that means coming into regular contact with the Gotham City Police Department.

However, as Gotham Knights reminds you about 30 minutes in, you should avoid cops at all costs. No, it’s not because…